Sorceress for Hire

The river ran backwards on the day the queen vanished...

Scientists were baffled by the phenomenon. Expert after expert was consulted to no avail. No one could explain it.

Of course, in our modern-day world where mystical forces are eschewed in favor of pop science (which is far less reliable in my opinion,) no one would have ever connected the odd river behavior to the most beloved Queen of the sea's disappearance.

If they had, they would have noticed that the forests, the spiders, and so many other natural habitats were behaving oddly as well.

I watched the chaos on TV from my favorite stool at Mingrians Pub, a little dive on the outskirts of London that had existed in one form or another since humans had felt the need to gather. I didn't have many chances to come here, I worked far too much for that as all self-employed people do (at least if they want to eat well), but today was a special exception. I would not care about the news, and I would have gladly let the eggheads debate each other until they got bored except for Calliope's little visit this morning.

It takes a stronger soul than I to ignore a request from a 10-foot-tall black arachnid hanging over your bed when you wake up. I shuddered at the unpleasant memory and tossed back my third whiskey. I was not at all interested in this problem; I had a whole heap of my own, but I owed Calliope's people. I incurred the debt a few lifetimes ago, but it was big enough that when they were in trouble, I knew I would receive a call.

Turns out, their queen had disappeared along with all the queens that ruled the natural order of things, the river's oddity was only the tip of the iceberg. Soon all of Earth would be upended into chaos if the queens were not back on their thrones by the next new moon.

I sighed as rain spattered against the pub's oak & rowan-framed windows. Old as this place was, it never showed any signs of wear and tear. The rain was quickly turning into a storm, which had come out of nowhere. I was jack's utter lack of surprise, the weather was only going to become more unpredictable.

I rolled the etched glass tumbler in my hand, Calliope's people, or the spider kingdom, had helped me precisely three incarnations ago. I remembered it clearly; I had volunteered my life to save my dear friend Anna's existence from the machinations of one of the darkest warlocks of that time. He was truly after a friend of hers and Anna had ended up being caught in the crossfire, but of the two of us I knew I was better suited to deal with him.

As it turned out, I was right.

The warlock recognized my innate magical gifts and made me his apprentice, well lackey is more accurate. Until the day that he needed a particularly important sacrifice for one of the more powerful lords of hell, that is.

As luck would have it, a memeber of the spider kingdom had been in the warlock's home. All spiders are part of the kingdom, no matter how great or small.

That teensy spider heard the warlock's plans for me. The little creature took pity on me and offered its assistance, I accepted, hence I am here, and that warlock is in the place that he meant for me. My skin crawled whenever I thought about how things were set to turn out. I shuddered again.

Well, best to get this over with. I would need to send myself through time twice, once for each queen. Time spells were a painful and delicate process, the chances of getting lost in a time current were 97 to 3.

During the spell, my focus would need to remain absolute while I traversed the currents, and that was hoping that I had picked the correct one.

Hence the whiskey, it helped dull my anxiety & relaxed me enough so as I would'nt make a mess of this. I pulled my black antique gladstone bag up from its place by my feet and snapped the gold hasps open. I pulled out the items that I would need for these journeys.

Many like to use fancy spell work objects and long chants or hopelessly complex sigils. I preferred a more practical approach. While all magic works better with a physical object to anchor it to our world, the anchor can be anything which represents the result that you are attempting to achieve. For Time Work I used a spinning top wound with golden thread. It was simple, easy to use and once the top stopped spinning the gold thread would automatically pull me back here. Mingrians pub had some of the best protection warding in two continents, which is why I am doing the work here. I would be remiss if I did not consider the probability that there were beings who wouldn't want me to succeed, and I was not about to have them interfere with my work if I could help it.

Although it would have been helpful to have a personal item from each queen, it was not neccessary as i could track their energy signature by its alienness to environment around them.

I had divined that the Queens had been scattered throughout history. Which meant that there was some high-level ancient magic at work.

According to Calliope, I just needed to find the Queen of the Seas and the spider queen, and I would be released from my obligation...all obligation to the spider kingdom. That is when I knew it was bad, those leggy bastards had been holding this card over my head for three lifetimes and would never burn it up over one of their royalties going missing. They were exceptionally organized and ruthless; one queen has an accident, and another is crowned within seconds. The only exception is with their young, they are fiercely protective of their offspring.

I would need to track both queens and dive through time to snatch each one. The spider queen would be easy to spot, even though she could shapeshift into a more humanoid form she was more flamboyant than her predecessors. The queen of the Sea's however, she was going to be difficult.

Just as I was about to set the top spinning, the dregs of my whiskey began to swirl and fog as the image of the Queen of Sea's shell & jewel encrusted throne coalesced, she could communicate through water of ANY sort, "Amara Landsend! You must find the Queen of the Wild River! I am safe! She is the key to all of this and the original intended target of the spell that caused this!" the great throne began to fade at the last syllable, which was oddly garbled and distorted, but I wanted some answers first.

"Queen, how were you able to escape?"

Irritation was plain in her tone, which was odd. "I was never taken."

I saw my raised eyebrows reflected in the tumbler glass" And how did you manage that, your majesty?" I said sweetly.

Her face twisted a bit" My kingdom's mages have many precautions installed. The Wild River queen was able to pass warning on to me in time for me to save myself as the spell erupted through the lands. DO your duty Amara Landsend" and that was when I realized I was not dealing with a queen of any sort.

I contemplated for a bit "With all due respect, my duty has nothing to do with you, Your Majesty. You are one job that I can take off my to do list, so thank you. However, if you have any information on the spell that took your sister queens, it will make diplomatic sense to share it"

Now she was full-on angry "I will not quibble with the likes of you! You will recover The Queen of the Wild River as your top priority and due to your behavior, without compensation." She full on sneered at me. She was clearly used to getting her way all of the time.

I hate mock royalty. "Hmm, well suit yourself, your majesty. I am retained to rescue one queen currently. The Queen of the Wild River is not on my list, so you will need to make other arrangements to secure her rescue. Have a good day." I went to dump the rest of the whiskey in the trash when I heard her indignant screech.

"You would do well to remember who you are speaking with."

"You would do well to remember that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, your majesty." the last dripping with belittlement. "Now where is the ACTUAL Queen of the Sea's?"

The girl pressed her lips together and frowned at me "Queen Yelena is in poor health and has been in the healing ponds for some time. I am acting regent until her chosen regent can be recovered."

"Ah, so the spell hit the acting queen. Good to know. I assume Queen Yelena is still in the healing ponds in our time?"

"Yes."

I had a decision to make, I could haggle with this idiot and either make a fortune or get slighted with no recourse, or I could make her deal with the Spider kingdom. I might lose out on some cash, but it would be less of a headache for me. Besides the cash was dubious at best.

"Good to hear, your majesty. I will proceed to retrieve the queen that I am contracted for. Should you wish to retain my services for any retrieval work, you will need to contact Calliope of the Spider Kingdom and make arrangements through her. She will inform you of my fee and you can decide if you wish to retain my services." I was trying so hard not to laugh as the young girl's face began turning different shades of color. She knew she could not order me to do anything, she held no power over me. By handing her off to the spider royalty, which no one liked dealing with, I had just effectively put her in a position, but I did so politely and through appropriate channels. She had no recourse with me and would need to leave me alone. Should she retaliate later, she would be severely punished. That felt good!

"I will contact Queen Calliope. As time is of the essence, she should excuse my bringing this trivial matter to her. But I will inform her that it was YOU who refused to work for ME, Acting regent Sessia."

"Ok, Have good day then." I gave her my best professional smile.

The whiskey bubbled and the glass shattered almost before I could set it down. It melted into a lump of slag on Mingrians bar counter, I would charge it to the Sea kingdoms bill.

Laughter peeled from above me and I looked up to find Calliope hanging above me. She was laughing so hard that she was in danger of falling.

She slid from the ceiling and formed into a small curvy brunette of around 20 with exceptionally large eyes "You are incorrigible!"

I smiled "and you are Queen, YOUR Majesty!"

She put her head in her hands and hopped up onto stool beside me "Don't call me that. Just tell me that you have found Arrania!"

"Yes. Question, do I still need to retrieve the acting queen of the Sea's?"

She twisted her face a bit "Arrania is the priority. but yes, rescue the acting queen. And you will hate this, but I need you to retrieve the queen of the wild river."

I knew this was coming " Make it worth my while Cal, you know the risk I'm taking by doing this."

She smiled "Fair. name your price."

"Enough to set me and my children up for life. It is to be paid even if I do not return intact."

She looked so sad then "You know I would. Fine, I will add the Spider kingdom's customary 50 percent and bill it to the Sea kingdom. It’s not like they cannot afford it!" She rolled her eyes.

"What if they don't pay?"

"Then the wild river queen & the Queen of the Sea's will be long-term guest's of the spider kingdom, and the sea kingdom will be responsible for the chaos that ensues." She smiled and her fangs began to show

I nodded "You will want to leave now. I need to get started"

She shook her head "No, I'm here until you get back!"

I nodded and started the top spinning, closing my eyes & focusing my mind I let myself come unstuck from time and rode the timestream to The Spider Queen Arrania's energy signature.

When I opened my eyes, I was still in Mingrians pub, but a quick look at the calendar that was always displayed behind the bar told me I was in 1885. October 30th in Victorian England?

And it was snowing.